Surviving the global pallet shortage.

In a post-pandemic world, pallet businesses have been hit by soaring transportation and core material prices – nails, fuel and of course, lumber. Combine this with high demand for products, our once-strong supply chain seems to be missing a few links. Enter the global pallet shortage.

Those outside the supply chain and finance sectors may view a global pallet shortage as a walk in the park, after enduring over a year in the 8th largest pandemic / epidemic in history. But the pallet industry, specifically pallet suppliers and sellers, know that this couldn’t be farther from the truth.

If this is starting to sound familiar, you aren’t alone:

  • Buying or selling pallets that you may not have otherwise;
  • Turning away large volumes of business due to lack of supply;
  • Relying more on recycling scrap lumber in-house to build pallets;
  • Charging or paying up to twice as much for pallets (with little to no resistance);
  • Frustrated customers, buyers, sellers and front-line warehouse and drivers;

You’re not alone. Reports released indicate that high prices and shortages will be with us through 2022 – with inflation on the horizon. How will the pallet industry adapt to this? How will pallet business owners deal with this? As they say, the devil is in the details.

How well are you doing these things?

  • Efficient use of resources and processes – your staff and their time;
  • Reduce and/or eliminate errors that cost time and money;
  • Offering a wider range of related or adjacent products or services, diversify
  • Make it simple for customers to work with you, and possibly most importantly.
  • Know your inventory and real time finance numbers at all times

Improvement in one or two of these areas is a start, and will help. But real success is the sum of all parts. It is more important than ever to brace for higher prices, more fast and dramatic changes beyond your control.  Or the month-over-month pressure when the holidays come around?

We honestly didn’t expect Pallet Connect to be as effective as it has been for us when it came to keeping on top of our inventory and sales numbers. And we certainly didn’t expect it to glue our company together throughout this past year, most notably allowing our finance team to process 35% more A/P and A/R, with no additional staff and less work per person.

Jon at APM Shipping had this to say about using Pallet Connect:

“I can’t even begin to tell you how many areas of our pallet business it has improved. From taking orders to scheduling builds & deliveries to using the paperless proof of delivery it has revolutionized our business.

We were just using QuickBooks and spreadsheets to track everything prior to PC. It was tough to wrap our arms around what was really going with the business with data being in multiple locations. Now with everything in one spot and the ease of using the reports from PC we can get the info we need with a click of the mouse.”

Pallets haven’t changed much in over 75 years, but the Pallet Business certainly has. Will you?

Book a free consultation to see if Pallet Connect is right for you!

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